This book is a publication of a session held on the EAA Annual meeting in Thessaloniki. It covers... more This book is a publication of a session held on the EAA Annual meeting in Thessaloniki. It covers a wide range of theoretical and methodological issues, such as: locating cemeteries in the landscape; age; gender and social relations derived from mortuary evidence, and also the chronological and spatial development of sites and the question of their continuity. The chronological span of topics is wide - from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age; the geographical scope equally so, including vast regions of Europe from Belgium to Estonia, and from Italy to Scandinavia. New methods and approaches, such as ancient DNA analysis, advanced databases and Geographic Information Systems, are all taken into account. 160p, color and b/w figs, maps.
Aastakiimneid on oletatud, et inimesed jétsid selle ala maha kiviaja I6ppedes ning viljelusmajand... more Aastakiimneid on oletatud, et inimesed jétsid selle ala maha kiviaja I6ppedes ning viljelusmajanduse muutudes peamiseks elatusalaks. Seda seisukohta on pdhjendatud muististe puudumise voi vihesusega. Millised need muistised on ja miks neid seal ikkagi leidub, on jadnud laiema tdhelepanuta. Artiklis on analiilisitud teadaolevatele kinnismuististele ja juhuleidudele toetudes paikse inimasustuse moeldavust muinasaja eri etappidel ning piiiitud anda iilevaadet rannikukasutusest. Lisaks sellele on peatutud iihiskonna arenguskeemidel ning pooratud tihelepanu rannikuala ja sisemaa elanike suhetele. Probable permanent habitation of the North Estonian Coastal Plain is discussed. For decades, it has been supposed that people abandoned this area after the end of the Stone Age, when land cultivation became the main way of subsistence. That position has been motivated by the lack or scantiness of archaeological sites. Not much attention has been paid to the questions of what these sites are and why they exist there at all. On the basis of the known archaeological sites and stray finds, the possibility of the coastal settlement and the use of the coast in different periods of prehistory is analysed. In addition, possible different modes of the development of society and the relationship between the inhabitants of the coastal and inland areas are considered.
Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Doktoritöö käsitleb Põhja-Eesti muin... more Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Doktoritöö käsitleb Põhja-Eesti muinasaegset inimasustust ning maastikukasutust pikaajalises perspektiivis alates kiviajast, mil tekkisid esimesed asulakohad, kuni keskajani, mil kohalikud külad ilmuvad järk-järgult kirjalikesse allikatesse. Põhitähelepanu on siiski pööratud ajale, mil inimesed esmakordselt teadlikult ja jäävalt hakkasid ümbritsevat maastikku muutma, st pronksi- ja eelrooma rauaajale. Tööd läbib maastikutemaatika, mis on nii siduvaks mõisteks kui ka töö lähtekohaks. Maastikuna mõistetakse tervikut, mille moodustavad loodus, inimtegevustest jäänud/tekkivad jäljed ning aeg. Viimane kujutab endast mõttelist telge, mille ümber koonduvad kultuurmaastiku erinevad kihid. Just maastik on sageli andnud tõuke mingiks kindlaks inimkäitumiseks ning olen püüdnud analüüsida muistist koos seda ümbritseva keskkonnaga, mille osaks ta on. Inimasustuse ja maastikukasutuse uurimiseks on töös kasutatud põhiliselt kahte lähenem...
Introduction "... human existence always involves Being-somewhere" (Thomas 1996, 83) Al... more Introduction "... human existence always involves Being-somewhere" (Thomas 1996, 83) All over the world people live in very different conditions, some of which seem more pleasing and some less pleasing to outsiders. Landscapes shape people and have a direct or indirect influence on their understanding of life and their environment, past and present. Differences in landscape and nature emerge most clearly in a broader geographical perspective, but they can also be distinguished in smaller districts. The river landscapes of North Estonia have been taken under examination as one such small district. The surroundings of rivers or river valleys are often considered the starting point of the wider spread of a farming economy in Estonia. Although human settlement by the rivers had been discussed to a greater or lesser extent by a number of earlier archaeologists, it was Marta Schmiedehelm who clearly presented problems connected with it. Studying the antiquities of Northeast Esto...
this paper describes traces of human activities in the lower reaches of the River Jägala (north e... more this paper describes traces of human activities in the lower reaches of the River Jägala (north estonia) from the mesolithic till the middle ages. attention is paid to the conditions essential to life and how people adjusted to them in the Prehistoric period and the Middle Ages. Also, the topic of the ritual landscape is discussed and the possible religious and ritual significance of the landscape analysed. This paper also tries to find an answer to the question whether people in Prehistoric times were only guided by economic considerations, or if there were also other aspects that attracted them near the banks of the River Jägala.
Introduction To be human is to be place-bound in a fundamental way (Tilley 2004, 25) The connecti... more Introduction To be human is to be place-bound in a fundamental way (Tilley 2004, 25) The connections between people and their surrounding landscape have been different in different places and times. In the past, as amongst present traditional tribes, it was probably more intimate and deeper. The landscape was treated as an animated whole and people communicated with it. Originally even hostile landscape was humanized and socialized through social practices (Tacon 2000, 50). All that might have left some marks on landscape, but not necessarily. At the same time these relations between the people and the landscape affected people's mental worlds, their mental map. Although landscape is a physical entity, it is socially constructed in the minds of people and these mental images and cognitive constructions are controlled by people (Children & Nash 1997, 1). So its importance for the settlers was (and is) not only economical, but also mental. People have always and everywhere explain...
"...landscape is the work of mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as ... more "...landscape is the work of mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock. " (Schama 1995, 7) Introduction People usually inhabit environs that contain traces of the lives and work of numerous past generations. Sometimes these traces are hidden, sometimes visible. Thus landscapes consist of intertwined and coalesced layers; those layers are altered, deepened and re-created daily. Those layers can be so intertwined that they cannot be distinguished at all and they form an inseparable unit, they are both material and mental. Still, one can say that some layers disappear and others emerge to replace them, some are preserved in people's memory, and that knowledge is transferred to others. Such processes are partly conscious and intended, and partly not, they materialise through our lives, activities, memories and recognition. The more a place is used, the more layers of meanings it has. Places can be used in one purpose for a long time or they can be used for different purposes in different time periods. For example, an area of earlier settlement sites has later been used for burying; stone graves have been established on previously cultivated land, or fields have been cultivated in the surroundings of older graves. A former field was re-used for establishing a settlement site or vice versa. Processes that took place in one and the same site might also occur repeatedly. Such changes in the use of a place have occurred both in Estonia as well as in other places. It is not a universal rule, valid always and everywhere, but it occurs quite often. Are such developments and changes only accidental coincidences or deliberate choices of people? Having been studying the settlement and the use of landscape in north Estonia during prehistory for a long time, it puzzled me why some sites have been used repeatedly. Do these places differ from the ones used only once and/or for a long time for one purpose? This led me back to the questions regarding people's use of landscape and their (cultural) choices that are made there. Searching answers to these questions might provide new data about the principles of selection for choosing locations for certain activities. Getting to know these principles helps to better understand past societies and settlement development. Do the repeatedly used sites differ from other places? It is said that sites are not equal, and that inequality is expressed in the way they are used. If these repeatedly used sites were considered as different from ordinary, then what was their rank in the hierarchy of sites? The present article studies places used in different times, examples are given both of long-term use of a place for the same purpose, as well as of sites that were used for different purpose in different times. Hence both stability and instability of societies are analysed through landscape use. The reasons why some sites have been (repeatedly) re-used are discussed, and it is investigated whether those places have any special features that are still recognizable in the landscape. Why was a site used in different times for the same purpose (e.g. settlement site--settlement site), others for different aims (e.g. settlement site grave)? What made those places attractive? Did the same reasons make people use one site repeatedly for dwelling and re-use an earlier settlement site for establishing a grave? Or was the choice based on different phenomena? Have the settlement sites in places where graves of different periods co-exist, also been repeatedly used? Were people actually aware that the same sites had been used earlier, and if they were, then how did they know? Answers will also be searched for questions concerning similarities in the physical appearance of the repeatedly used places. What was that special something that attracted people in different eras? Questions to be answered are numerous. Those questions lead to the diverse and many-sided phenomena of memory and remembering. …
Introduction: remembering the landscape Different human activities take place in landscape. Peopl... more Introduction: remembering the landscape Different human activities take place in landscape. People live their everyday life there, using the available possibilities. In that way landscape is both the source and enabler of practical actions (De Certeau 1984). People accommodate themselves to it and change it by leaving traces of their activities. These traces are parts of the landscape of future generations, living in the same sites. But landscape offers different opportunities by being a source of inspiration for several mental practices like remembering and forgetting (c.f. e.g. Knapp & Ashmore 2000 and references). Both remembering and forgetting can be associated with the same places and objects. Landscape always includes layers of the past, whether in the physical form of some archaeological object or as a mental layer only. In the latter case it is impossible to distinguish them and they remain in the realm of fantasy. Archaeological objects also possess their layers of meaning...
The article is an attempt to analyse the sense of place and attitude towards the surrounding land... more The article is an attempt to analyse the sense of place and attitude towards the surrounding landscape of people as it can be traced on the basis of archaeological objects. A sense of place depends largely on the landscape experience and resulting from this, on the evaluation of places. Places on landscape have different value and are respectively used in different ways. At the same time, the use of landscape depends on the possibilities of local microenvironment. Nature can vary in a small area and people use these differences actively. Although landscapes change in the course of time, it can still be supposed what caused a certain use of landscape in some places. The article focuses on the visible archaeological objects on landscape. A case study has been carried out in Rebala, Jõelähtme and Võerdla villages in the historical Jõelähtme parish in Harjumaa. Undulating land and probably also bogs were of importance in Rebala and Võerdla villages during the Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Ages. In Jõelähtme the most important features of landscape were river, karst and the rising and lowering of the earth. In later period, arable land shifted to the centre of attention and previous connections on the landscape and with it lost their meaning.
There have been various explanations in archaeological literature about whether the earliest Bron... more There have been various explanations in archaeological literature about whether the earliest Bronze Age stone-cist graves and the first Pre-Roman Iron Age tarand graves in Estonia were built by locals or non-locals. As to possible immigrations, the stone-cist graves have been often related to Scandinavian populations, whilst early tarand graves allegedly had roots in eastern directions. The oldest known examples of these cemetery types are at Jõelähtme and Muuksi for stone-cist graves, and at Ilmandu and Kunda for early tarand graves, in the coastal zone of northern Estonia. In order to test the migration hypothesis we carried out a bioarchaeological study, measuring and mapping local biologically available Sr and O isotope ratios and analysing stable isotope signals of altogether eight individuals from these early stone-cist and tarand graves. The study material was chosen on the basis of the oldest AMS dates of skeletons available so far, or according to the earliest burial constructions in the cemeteries. Based on the comparison of local biologically available Sr and O isotopic baseline results and the results obtained from the individuals, we can talk about migrants in the case of two persons from Kunda and perhaps one from Muuksi, whilst most of the individuals analysed are of local origin. Thus, the idea of Early Metal Period migrations to Estonia from the surrounding regions is supported to some extent. However, the discussion of these migrations might turn out to be surprisingly different from what is expected on the basis of material culture. We also emphasise the importance of further analysis, especially mapping isotopic baseline data in the eastern Baltics, in order to draw further conclusions about the directions and extent of prehistoric migration in this region.
This book is a publication of a session held on the EAA Annual meeting in Thessaloniki. It covers... more This book is a publication of a session held on the EAA Annual meeting in Thessaloniki. It covers a wide range of theoretical and methodological issues, such as: locating cemeteries in the landscape; age; gender and social relations derived from mortuary evidence, and also the chronological and spatial development of sites and the question of their continuity. The chronological span of topics is wide - from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age; the geographical scope equally so, including vast regions of Europe from Belgium to Estonia, and from Italy to Scandinavia. New methods and approaches, such as ancient DNA analysis, advanced databases and Geographic Information Systems, are all taken into account. 160p, color and b/w figs, maps.
Aastakiimneid on oletatud, et inimesed jétsid selle ala maha kiviaja I6ppedes ning viljelusmajand... more Aastakiimneid on oletatud, et inimesed jétsid selle ala maha kiviaja I6ppedes ning viljelusmajanduse muutudes peamiseks elatusalaks. Seda seisukohta on pdhjendatud muististe puudumise voi vihesusega. Millised need muistised on ja miks neid seal ikkagi leidub, on jadnud laiema tdhelepanuta. Artiklis on analiilisitud teadaolevatele kinnismuististele ja juhuleidudele toetudes paikse inimasustuse moeldavust muinasaja eri etappidel ning piiiitud anda iilevaadet rannikukasutusest. Lisaks sellele on peatutud iihiskonna arenguskeemidel ning pooratud tihelepanu rannikuala ja sisemaa elanike suhetele. Probable permanent habitation of the North Estonian Coastal Plain is discussed. For decades, it has been supposed that people abandoned this area after the end of the Stone Age, when land cultivation became the main way of subsistence. That position has been motivated by the lack or scantiness of archaeological sites. Not much attention has been paid to the questions of what these sites are and why they exist there at all. On the basis of the known archaeological sites and stray finds, the possibility of the coastal settlement and the use of the coast in different periods of prehistory is analysed. In addition, possible different modes of the development of society and the relationship between the inhabitants of the coastal and inland areas are considered.
Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Doktoritöö käsitleb Põhja-Eesti muin... more Väitekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.Doktoritöö käsitleb Põhja-Eesti muinasaegset inimasustust ning maastikukasutust pikaajalises perspektiivis alates kiviajast, mil tekkisid esimesed asulakohad, kuni keskajani, mil kohalikud külad ilmuvad järk-järgult kirjalikesse allikatesse. Põhitähelepanu on siiski pööratud ajale, mil inimesed esmakordselt teadlikult ja jäävalt hakkasid ümbritsevat maastikku muutma, st pronksi- ja eelrooma rauaajale. Tööd läbib maastikutemaatika, mis on nii siduvaks mõisteks kui ka töö lähtekohaks. Maastikuna mõistetakse tervikut, mille moodustavad loodus, inimtegevustest jäänud/tekkivad jäljed ning aeg. Viimane kujutab endast mõttelist telge, mille ümber koonduvad kultuurmaastiku erinevad kihid. Just maastik on sageli andnud tõuke mingiks kindlaks inimkäitumiseks ning olen püüdnud analüüsida muistist koos seda ümbritseva keskkonnaga, mille osaks ta on. Inimasustuse ja maastikukasutuse uurimiseks on töös kasutatud põhiliselt kahte lähenem...
Introduction "... human existence always involves Being-somewhere" (Thomas 1996, 83) Al... more Introduction "... human existence always involves Being-somewhere" (Thomas 1996, 83) All over the world people live in very different conditions, some of which seem more pleasing and some less pleasing to outsiders. Landscapes shape people and have a direct or indirect influence on their understanding of life and their environment, past and present. Differences in landscape and nature emerge most clearly in a broader geographical perspective, but they can also be distinguished in smaller districts. The river landscapes of North Estonia have been taken under examination as one such small district. The surroundings of rivers or river valleys are often considered the starting point of the wider spread of a farming economy in Estonia. Although human settlement by the rivers had been discussed to a greater or lesser extent by a number of earlier archaeologists, it was Marta Schmiedehelm who clearly presented problems connected with it. Studying the antiquities of Northeast Esto...
this paper describes traces of human activities in the lower reaches of the River Jägala (north e... more this paper describes traces of human activities in the lower reaches of the River Jägala (north estonia) from the mesolithic till the middle ages. attention is paid to the conditions essential to life and how people adjusted to them in the Prehistoric period and the Middle Ages. Also, the topic of the ritual landscape is discussed and the possible religious and ritual significance of the landscape analysed. This paper also tries to find an answer to the question whether people in Prehistoric times were only guided by economic considerations, or if there were also other aspects that attracted them near the banks of the River Jägala.
Introduction To be human is to be place-bound in a fundamental way (Tilley 2004, 25) The connecti... more Introduction To be human is to be place-bound in a fundamental way (Tilley 2004, 25) The connections between people and their surrounding landscape have been different in different places and times. In the past, as amongst present traditional tribes, it was probably more intimate and deeper. The landscape was treated as an animated whole and people communicated with it. Originally even hostile landscape was humanized and socialized through social practices (Tacon 2000, 50). All that might have left some marks on landscape, but not necessarily. At the same time these relations between the people and the landscape affected people's mental worlds, their mental map. Although landscape is a physical entity, it is socially constructed in the minds of people and these mental images and cognitive constructions are controlled by people (Children & Nash 1997, 1). So its importance for the settlers was (and is) not only economical, but also mental. People have always and everywhere explain...
"...landscape is the work of mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as ... more "...landscape is the work of mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock. " (Schama 1995, 7) Introduction People usually inhabit environs that contain traces of the lives and work of numerous past generations. Sometimes these traces are hidden, sometimes visible. Thus landscapes consist of intertwined and coalesced layers; those layers are altered, deepened and re-created daily. Those layers can be so intertwined that they cannot be distinguished at all and they form an inseparable unit, they are both material and mental. Still, one can say that some layers disappear and others emerge to replace them, some are preserved in people's memory, and that knowledge is transferred to others. Such processes are partly conscious and intended, and partly not, they materialise through our lives, activities, memories and recognition. The more a place is used, the more layers of meanings it has. Places can be used in one purpose for a long time or they can be used for different purposes in different time periods. For example, an area of earlier settlement sites has later been used for burying; stone graves have been established on previously cultivated land, or fields have been cultivated in the surroundings of older graves. A former field was re-used for establishing a settlement site or vice versa. Processes that took place in one and the same site might also occur repeatedly. Such changes in the use of a place have occurred both in Estonia as well as in other places. It is not a universal rule, valid always and everywhere, but it occurs quite often. Are such developments and changes only accidental coincidences or deliberate choices of people? Having been studying the settlement and the use of landscape in north Estonia during prehistory for a long time, it puzzled me why some sites have been used repeatedly. Do these places differ from the ones used only once and/or for a long time for one purpose? This led me back to the questions regarding people's use of landscape and their (cultural) choices that are made there. Searching answers to these questions might provide new data about the principles of selection for choosing locations for certain activities. Getting to know these principles helps to better understand past societies and settlement development. Do the repeatedly used sites differ from other places? It is said that sites are not equal, and that inequality is expressed in the way they are used. If these repeatedly used sites were considered as different from ordinary, then what was their rank in the hierarchy of sites? The present article studies places used in different times, examples are given both of long-term use of a place for the same purpose, as well as of sites that were used for different purpose in different times. Hence both stability and instability of societies are analysed through landscape use. The reasons why some sites have been (repeatedly) re-used are discussed, and it is investigated whether those places have any special features that are still recognizable in the landscape. Why was a site used in different times for the same purpose (e.g. settlement site--settlement site), others for different aims (e.g. settlement site grave)? What made those places attractive? Did the same reasons make people use one site repeatedly for dwelling and re-use an earlier settlement site for establishing a grave? Or was the choice based on different phenomena? Have the settlement sites in places where graves of different periods co-exist, also been repeatedly used? Were people actually aware that the same sites had been used earlier, and if they were, then how did they know? Answers will also be searched for questions concerning similarities in the physical appearance of the repeatedly used places. What was that special something that attracted people in different eras? Questions to be answered are numerous. Those questions lead to the diverse and many-sided phenomena of memory and remembering. …
Introduction: remembering the landscape Different human activities take place in landscape. Peopl... more Introduction: remembering the landscape Different human activities take place in landscape. People live their everyday life there, using the available possibilities. In that way landscape is both the source and enabler of practical actions (De Certeau 1984). People accommodate themselves to it and change it by leaving traces of their activities. These traces are parts of the landscape of future generations, living in the same sites. But landscape offers different opportunities by being a source of inspiration for several mental practices like remembering and forgetting (c.f. e.g. Knapp & Ashmore 2000 and references). Both remembering and forgetting can be associated with the same places and objects. Landscape always includes layers of the past, whether in the physical form of some archaeological object or as a mental layer only. In the latter case it is impossible to distinguish them and they remain in the realm of fantasy. Archaeological objects also possess their layers of meaning...
The article is an attempt to analyse the sense of place and attitude towards the surrounding land... more The article is an attempt to analyse the sense of place and attitude towards the surrounding landscape of people as it can be traced on the basis of archaeological objects. A sense of place depends largely on the landscape experience and resulting from this, on the evaluation of places. Places on landscape have different value and are respectively used in different ways. At the same time, the use of landscape depends on the possibilities of local microenvironment. Nature can vary in a small area and people use these differences actively. Although landscapes change in the course of time, it can still be supposed what caused a certain use of landscape in some places. The article focuses on the visible archaeological objects on landscape. A case study has been carried out in Rebala, Jõelähtme and Võerdla villages in the historical Jõelähtme parish in Harjumaa. Undulating land and probably also bogs were of importance in Rebala and Võerdla villages during the Bronze and Pre-Roman Iron Ages. In Jõelähtme the most important features of landscape were river, karst and the rising and lowering of the earth. In later period, arable land shifted to the centre of attention and previous connections on the landscape and with it lost their meaning.
There have been various explanations in archaeological literature about whether the earliest Bron... more There have been various explanations in archaeological literature about whether the earliest Bronze Age stone-cist graves and the first Pre-Roman Iron Age tarand graves in Estonia were built by locals or non-locals. As to possible immigrations, the stone-cist graves have been often related to Scandinavian populations, whilst early tarand graves allegedly had roots in eastern directions. The oldest known examples of these cemetery types are at Jõelähtme and Muuksi for stone-cist graves, and at Ilmandu and Kunda for early tarand graves, in the coastal zone of northern Estonia. In order to test the migration hypothesis we carried out a bioarchaeological study, measuring and mapping local biologically available Sr and O isotope ratios and analysing stable isotope signals of altogether eight individuals from these early stone-cist and tarand graves. The study material was chosen on the basis of the oldest AMS dates of skeletons available so far, or according to the earliest burial constructions in the cemeteries. Based on the comparison of local biologically available Sr and O isotopic baseline results and the results obtained from the individuals, we can talk about migrants in the case of two persons from Kunda and perhaps one from Muuksi, whilst most of the individuals analysed are of local origin. Thus, the idea of Early Metal Period migrations to Estonia from the surrounding regions is supported to some extent. However, the discussion of these migrations might turn out to be surprisingly different from what is expected on the basis of material culture. We also emphasise the importance of further analysis, especially mapping isotopic baseline data in the eastern Baltics, in order to draw further conclusions about the directions and extent of prehistoric migration in this region.
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